In search of a better quality of life, fulfilling our dreams to see the world and provide ourselves and young children with invaluable experiences, we sold our home and possessions in London to begin our journey of a lifetime.
Here we will share our tips, stories, successes and failures, not only for our families and friends, but also to assist those who may have similar adventures in mind. We hope also to inspire those who relish the idea of travelling to newer and unfamiliar pastures but do not know how and those who require some evidence it can be done.

Ecuador Shopping

16 June 2010

As a self-professed foodie, I am continually thinking about food: how to veganize a recipe; make it with a higher raw content; where to buy the best ingredients or just plain ol’ day dreaming about eating something luscious. It is just something I can’t help.

When we arrived in Zadar before heading out on the ferry to Kukljica, we stopped by the local outdoor market for some fresh produce. Cherries, apricots, peaches were all in season and more yummy things blessed the stalls, too.

From my last visit to Croatia, I remembered how delicious the local cherries and strawberries were. And Claude has always talked fondly of his childhood summer days of picking figs, apricots and peaches from the trees here.

To be sure I was getting the real deal, I kept prodding him to ask the vendors if their produce was local. Beautifully enough, most of what the sellers had was home grown.

Even when we were in Ecuador we bought most of our produce from farmer’s markets. Everything we purchased was locally cultivated and in season (excluding some apples we bought that had been transported from Argentina – but after we found a stall selling local apples we bought those instead).

Thus far on our travels we have found it much easier to eat seasonal, natively grown produce. Whether that is due to a less westernized approach to buying foods solely in supermarkets or the sheer abundance of markets is hard to tell.

So where am I going with all this locally grown in-season talk?

I picked up a book in an American airport when we were in transit back to London from Ecuador. I usually don’t buy books in bookstores. I prefer to get hand-me-downs from Amazon, but this one really caught my eye. So I paid the top-end price and bought it.

It is called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is the tale of one American family that vowed for one year that they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves or learn to live without it.

Now I am only a few chapters in, but I am already feeling the walloping weight of its important message. I was already aware of many of the author’s concerns. However, the light in which it is delivered has had my head spinning with the sustainability of the way we eat as a family.

I have been asking myself the question that why when I am in London supermarkets am I not as discerning about getting in-season produce? Then in only the way humans can, I justify it with how the English climate makes it more difficult to get a variety of vegan foods in ones’ diet.

In fairness I would never buy out of season strawberries. I made a point to get organic veg deliveries from English farms, go to pick-your-own farms, tried growing a selection of greens and would shamelessly beg off my green-fingered friends for some of their goods.

More to the point, I am thinking about how our vegan lifestyle is going to be sustainable for the future. At this moment in time being a vegan family is right for us and I hope it always will be.

However, being vegan does present its challenges but the rewards are also tremendous. As a family we eat a hugely varied diet. I have been known to order exotic ingredients for desserts or special ingredients to enhance our diets.
But I don’t want that variety to come between us and the health of the planet.

My ultimate dream for us is to have a plot of land where we grow most of our own food and supplement our crops with what our neighbours have produced. I want to know where my food has come from, to intimately get to know my food and share this with Zenchai. I don’t really cherish the idea of eating fruits or vegetables that have travelled thousands of miles to make it to our dinner table.

No sane person can argue against how fruits and vegetables taste the sexiest when they are freshly picked or cut from the garden.

I would like to think that our veganism is reducing our food footprint. But in my heart of hearts I know we can do better. I look forward to the day when I can sit down to a meal of food from our garden. I know it is within our reach.